AMBITION: SpaceX just asked permission to launch 4,425 satellites — more than currently orbit Earth.

After we took a look at SpaceX’s FCC application, though, it seems these won’t be your typical telecommunications satellites.

Each satellite in SpaceX’s planned constellation will weigh about 850 lbs (386 kg) and be roughly the size of a MINI Cooper car. They will orbit at altitudes ranging from 715 miles (1,150 km) to 790 miles (1,275 km).

From this lofty vantage point, SpaceX says each satellite could cover an ellipse about 1,300 miles (2,120 km) wide. That’s about the distance from Maine to the Florida panhandle.

“The system is designed to provide a wide range of broadband and communications services for residential, commercial, institutional, governmental and professional users worldwide,” SpaceX wrote in its application.

That isn’t just a whole lot of satellites; that’s likely to be a whole lot of short-lived satellites. I hope SpaceX has a plan for cleaning up their mess.

HMM: Romney and Trump to discuss secretary of state position, NBC source says. Well, what does Romney know about foreign policy? He’s stuck in the 1980s, according to Barack Obama.

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: San Francisco Teachers’ Union Offers Sick Anti-Trump Propaganda as Lesson Plan.

AUTOBLOG: The most or nothing: Mercedes-Maybach S650 Cabriolet pushes the luxury limits.

AT AMAZON, save on bestsellers in Office Products.

Plus, Tricycles, Scooters, and Wagons.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Get Us Off This Earth: If humans are going to survive for the long term, we have to leave the nest.

BEGIN THE HEALING, DAILY BEAST-STYLE: America’s Enemies Cheer Donald Trump’s Bigoted Transition Team.

STRATFOR: Deviating From the Plan in Iran.

Here’s the bullet point version:

•Though the United States is legally permitted to pull out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), it is unlikely to do so because of the other countries and considerations involved in the deal.

•Iran and the European signatories will hold fast to the deal as written and will exhort the incoming U.S. administration to keep it intact.

•Even if the U.S. Congress were to pass additional sanctions, they would not deter Iran from expanding its military or pursuing greater influence in the Middle East through proxy groups.

Letting Iran –the world’s foremost state sponsor of terror — out of its cage and turning it into a serious regional player will prove the most lasting (and dangerous) element of Barack Obama’s slender legacy.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: ABA Places Two More Law Schools On Probation: Charlotte And Valparaiso.

SPACE: Commercial space industry seeks regulatory reforms in the Trump administration.

Related: Babin backs Pence-led National Space Council. Bringing back the Space Council is a good idea. It was abolished in 1993 when the Clinton Administration came in, a move I argued against at the time. Most of the policies that allow today’s flourishing commercial-space sector were originated under the Space Council in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

I WANT FEWER PEOPLE IN PRISON, WHETHER OR NOT THE GUARDS ARE UNIONIZED PUBLIC EMPLOYEES: Outrage over Private Prisons Neglects the Real Problem.

CUE WORLD’S SMALLEST VIOLIN: Democrats know why they lost, but won’t fix their problems.

Anyone looking at the 2016 electoral map and exit polls knows there were two main forces that tipped the election to Trump: white working class inhabitants of the Rust Belt upset about a hollowed-out economy, and religious voters, both Catholic and Protestant, who reacted to attacks on their values by voting against the candidate of the cultural elite. There may be other reasons, but these two are highest on the list.

Trump’s victory did not happen overnight, either. The last eight years of the Obama presidency have been disastrous for Democrats. On their way to minority status, Democrats since 2009 have lost a net of 13 US Senate seats, 69 House seats, 12 governorships, and 30 state legislatures. The entire party is a smoldering ruin.

This is what happens when you invite unfair foreign competition for American jobs via bad trade practices and massive illegal immigration, and when you go to war with nuns over birth control.

Still, some Democrats believe the presidential election was unfairly denied them.

The “party of the people” rarely shows any trust in decisions made by actual people.

WASN’T ONE OF THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES TALKING ABOUT THIS OR SOMETHING? “Key Apple assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry, also known as Foxconn Technology Group, has been studying the possibility of moving iPhone production to the U.S., sources told the Nikkei Asian Review.”

21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: Woman Gives Birth to ‘Twins’ Who Were Actually Conceived 10 Days Apart.

POWER: Building A Better Grid Backup.

THE DEATH OF KEMALIST TURKEY: Turkey’s Erdogan could govern until 2029 under plans to change constitution.

Erdogan and his supporters argue Turkey needs the strong leadership of an executive presidency, akin to the system in the United States or France, to avoid the fragile coalition governments that hampered its development in the past.

Opponents see the proposed change as a vehicle for Erdogan’s ambition, and fear it will bring increasing authoritarianism to a country already under fire from Western allies over its deteriorating record on rights and freedoms, especially after widespread purges in the wake of a failed military coup in July.

The AKP, founded by Erdogan a decade and a half ago, is aiming to hold a referendum on the issue next spring and is seeking support from the nationalist MHP opposition order to win parliamentary approval for such a vote.

Having arrested, detained, or jailed tens of thousands of opposition members since last summer, MHP and others would be brave indeed to obstruct Erdogan’s apparent goal becoming Turkey’s President-for-Life.

WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS: Laboratory Supplies.

ROGER SIMON REPORTS FROM the Trump Transition press briefing.

HE AND I ARE ON THE SAME PAGE HERE: Stephen Hawking: We Need To Be Off Earth Within 1000 Years.

HE HASN’T EVEN BEEN SWORN IN AND THEY’RE ALREADY WORKING ON ENSURING A SECOND TRUMP TERM: On the UW–Madison campus last night, student activists obstructed the speech — by conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro — “Dismantling Safe Spaces: Facts Don’t Care About Your Feelings.”

Plus, local talk host Vicki McKenna was mobbed and the University of Wisconsin police did nothing. I hope the Trump Department of Education will work to ensure that people are safe and able to speak freely on college campuses regardless of their race, gender, or political views.

PHASERS ON FULL, VIPERS PREPARE TO LAUNCH: How Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica Can Teach the U.S. Navy to Defeat China.

TALK OF “TOXIC MASCULINITY” IS SEXIST AND CREATES A HOSTILE EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT. THE TRUMP DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION SHOULD INTERVENE. Why Colleges Should Stop Teaching “Toxic Masculinity.”

TO BE FAIR, HASN’T GOOGLE SEEMED LIKE IT WAS ON THE DNC’S STAFF SINCE, WELL, FOREVER? Google’s Eric Schmidt Wore ‘Staff’ Badge at Hillary Clinton Election Night Party.

BEGIN THE HEALING, NICOLAS KRISTOF-STYLE: A 12-Step Program for Responding to President-Elect Trump..

WHY YOU SHOULDN’T LEAVE YOUR LAPTOP with anyone you don’t trust.